Fraunhofer: Designing the Next-Generation BMS for BIG LEAP

26Sep

Fraunhofer: Designing the Next-Generation BMS for BIG LEAP

Interview

Fraunhofer is a key research partner in BIG LEAP, leading the development of a next-generation Battery Management System (BMS) architecture. With deep expertise in applied science and system integration, Fraunhofer is helping to make second-life batteries safer, smarter, and easier to integrate into energy storage systems across diverse use cases.

What’s the main role of Fraunhofer in the BIG LEAP project?
Fraunhofer leads the design of an open and interoperable BMS architecture under Work Package 2. This includes developing the hardware layer of the BMS, defining communication interfaces, and ensuring compliance with safety and regulatory standards. The goal is to create a flexible and modular system that can support the transition from first-life to second-life battery applications.

As part of this work, Fraunhofer is also designing the Decision Unit, a central component that hosts advanced algorithms to identify key battery metrics such as State of Charge (SoC), State of Health (SoH), and Remaining Useful Life (RUL). And contributing to a novel adaptive strategy that enables the BMS to recognize and manage batteries with different behaviors and performance levels. These efforts are essential to ensuring interoperability across chemistries and configurations, and to simplifying the integration of second-life batteries into modular energy storage systems

 

What are the main challenges Fraunhofer may face in the project?
One of the main challenges for Fraunhofer is achieving true interoperability across a wide range of battery types. Each battery behaves differently depending on its chemistry, age, and usage history, so designing a system that can adapt to all of them, while maintaining safety and efficiency, is a complex task. Embedding advanced decision-making algorithms into edge devices also requires careful optimization to ensure fast, real-time performance.

Another challenge lies in scaling these innovations from lab environments to industrial applications. While concepts may work in controlled conditions, real-world deployment demands robustness, reliability, and full compliance with European safety standards. Fraunhofer’s long-standing experience in applied research and system integration provides a strong foundation to meet these challenges and deliver practical, scalable solutions that support BIG LEAP’s mission.

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